THE — oe

the Indian trails over ‘ Jacob’s. lacdet
wicker and pole swings to serve as bridges
across chasms—wherever the ‘ float’ or sign
of mineral might lead him. Both on the
Fraser and in Cariboo he had found his share
of luck and ill luck; and he plainly regretted
the passing of that golden age of danger and
adventure. ‘ But,’ he said, pointing his trem-
bling old hands at the two railways, ‘if we
prospectors hadn’t blazed the trail of the
canyon, you wouldn’t have your railroads here
to-day. They only followed the trail we first
cut and then built. We followed the ‘float ”’
up and they followed us.’

What the trapper was to the fur trade, the
prospector was to the mining era that ushered
civilization into the wilds with a blare of dance-
halls and wine and wassail and greed. Ragged,
poor, roofless, grubstaked by ‘pardner’ or
outfitter on a basis of half profit, the prospector
stands as the eternal type of the trail-maker
for finance.